Governor Patrick Office Renovation

When Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain spent $1.2 million to renovate and redecorate his office, it caused a big furor. The governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, just spent $11.3 million in taxpayer funds to renovate his office, an expenditure that has raised a few eyebrows but triggered less of a furor. Some of the difference is surely that Merrill was headed down the tubes, but otherwise it seems like an example of people in government getting away with something that people in the private sector would not get away with.